By Steve Buckstein
Here at Cascade Policy Institute, as a nonprofit, nonpartisan think tank we don’t support or oppose political candidates. But we aren’t shy about telling candidates and elected officials what we think about their policies.
Now that this especially contentious election is finally over, you’re probably happy about some of the results and unhappy about others. But even if you got what, or whom, you wanted, you might think about some timeless insights from two discerning historical figures.
The first insight comes from Eric Hoffer, known as the longshoreman philosopher. In his 1951 book The True Believer, Hoffer noted:
“A man is likely to mind his own business when it is worth minding. When it is not, he takes his mind off his own meaningless affairs by minding other people’s business.”
The second insight comes from American statesman Daniel Webster, who in the early 1800’s said:
“There are men in all ages who mean to govern well, but they mean to govern. They promise to be good masters, but they mean to be masters.”
Even if the worst happened on election night in your opinion, remember that America has survived as a free and strong nation since declaring our Independence in 1776. In those 240 years we’ve benefited from some great public servants, and suffered some terrible ones. But we’ve always survived and generally prospered, and odds are that we will this time too.
